Raymarine C-Series Waypoint and Route Import + Export

[mjkassoc]

I have an all-Raymarine system so no problem transferring waypoints and routes between plotter and RayTech software, but loading a backup Garmin GPS 76 is another matter. Waypoints can be transferred via NMEA but not routes. Unclear whether Raymarine or Garmin is the culprit. My work-around is:

1. Transfer waypoints from RayTech to GPS 76 via NMEA.

2. Transfer waypoints and routes from GPS 76 to Trip and Waypoint Manager, an inexpensive Garmin package, via Garmin protocol.

3. Create routes manually in T&W Manager.

4. Delete all waypoints and routes from GPS 76.

4. Transfer all waypoints and routes from T&W Manager to GPS 76 via Garmin protocol.

Would GPSBabel be of any help here?

[Sandero]

Navigating a route from way point to way point is powerboat stuff and often dangerous and you encounter other power boats on reciprocal courses navigating their route from way point to way point.

I think a good navigation practice is to MANUALLY enter ever way point you need to fetch including "imaginary ones" you are sailing to on a one tack or another when you can't fetch it.

I find these routes and way points a waste of time and as I said can be dangerous. This was a very bad idea invented because it seemed so neat and it could be done with a chip.

[dacust]

I think using routes and waypoints are just like any other tool. If you understand them and their limitations and strengths, they can be useful.

I do mostly Intracoastal cruising. I find that having a route meticulously planned can be invaluable (my trip from Marathon Key to Charleston had over 2000 waypoints). But I don't have an autohelm and wouldn't think using it that way in close quarters would be a good idea.

But when I hit a bay where the Intracoastal crosses multiple traffic lanes, jogs up one creek and down another, then crosses another arm of the bay... In these cases the route clearly shows me where I need to head without having to constantly jump from a low chart to a high one and back to keep myself oriented. I can DO that, however. I can navigate by just the paper charts, as far as that goes.

2000 waypoints may seem overkill, but I actually used only about 10% of them. But at least every day there was one of those random little points I plotted that came in handy when I was least expecting it to.

I pore over the charts at length and prepare myself to navigate by charts alone. But doing the actual trip, I love being able to be lazy and just follow the lines, look at the close up paper charts to find the markers I should be looking for (based on that little line on the screen) and if it looks right, steer for it. Of course, if someone else had done the lines, I wouldn't be so cavalier...

So, like I said. It's just another tool. Some will find it useful, some will not. And some will abuse it and cause wrecks.

-dan

[Sandero]

There is utility for sure in digital charts and the ability to set a way point and have the device do some computation "instantly". I use the computational ability of digital charting.

For example if I want to fetch a mark which is 40 miles up the coast from my present position, I can program that mark as a waypoint and see the rhumb line path to that point. I can "see" on my plotter if that path crosses thin water, or if buoys are in the path, if it cross traffic lanes or area of strong currents and so forth. I could do this with a chart and a straight line. The device does it with a few key presses. It will also compute the time to get there at my present speed over the ground (which is more than likely to change) and it will constantlly up date my time of arrival... which I can do much about and which again is only reliable when I am fairly close to the mark.

I can also use the projected course like to "plan" my tacks if I can't fetch the mark directly which is often the case. The plotter will show me my course made good and I can see where thatis taking me because it has a line showing where I am going to be if I remain on the same course. It also shows me my heading (I have have the compass connected to the plotter) which reveals the current and leeway way data . So if the course to the mark is 85° but I am making leeway and there is a cross current I can set my heading to make the COG match the rhumb line to the mark, if it's one I can fetch without tacking. This applies to motoring in cross currents as well.

The net effect of using these data, is that for distant marks I can sail the shortest course, ie a perfect rhumb line. Of course when there are complex current and eddies and wind shifts near topography and so forth, the plotter is of less use since these data are not processed by a standard high end plotter. For this you would need more inputs like predicted wind direction and speed ahead as well as accurate current information.

When you set off on a very long jouney such as CT to Bermuda you will have to consider the Stream, crossing it and the eddies on either side... and the rhumb line is not always the fastest route. But with some strategy you can still use a waypoint (or series of them) to make your way avoiding the worst conditions and trying to stay with the best. You need good weather current (Stream) predictions and some sophisticated "what if" programs to see which would be the fastest based on the predicted conditions, which invariably change anyway and so it all is getting updated as you go.

Sure... setting a buch of waypoints to use to motor at night (or day) along a channel can be handy. I don't know that one needs a capacity of hundreds or thousands of them. Usually you can work with three or four and add a new one as you make one.

I think this route and waypoint thing is way over done.

[RBEmerson]

Originally Posted by mjkassoc

I have an all-Raymarine system so no problem transferring waypoints and routes between plotter and RayTech software, but loading a backup Garmin GPS 76 is another matter. Waypoints can be transferred via NMEA but not routes. Unclear whether Raymarine or Garmin is the culprit. My work-around is:

[...]
Would GPSBabel be of any help here?

Garmin is the villain here. On OWTW, the workaround is to send the route to a GPS76 via Garmin's proprietary protocol instead of via NMEA 0183 protocol. I don't have the Raynav package, so I don't know if it's willing to emit routes and waypoints with the Garmin comm protocol. If it will do that, life is good, if not, your current work-around is as good as any.

[RBEmerson]

The one big gotcha with running waypoints from directly from Somewhere, CT to Elsewhere, Bermuda is forgetting that the world really is round and over a passage of that length (or longer), its time to remember to use great circle sailing instead.

Most GPS-generated courses don't take into account the difference. Nav programs can be told to do it although not all do it.

[scotte]

?? GPS always uses a great circle route computation, never rhumb line... In fact it has to be, the datum is based on a spherical earth model and has no concept of map projection error and compensation.

[RBEmerson]

Close but no cigar. GPS fixes are sufficiently accurate to show that the earth is (very loosely) pear-shaped and not either a sphere or oblate spheroid (''squished'' sphere). The various map datum serve to create, over a relatively limited area (covering a continent, perhaps, but not the whole planet), a translation between raw GPS fixes and charts, which assume working with a sphere project onto a plane (the chart itself). That is, a raw fix gives a true geospatial result that, if applied directly to a chart, could be off in all three dimensions including puting the receiver well underground, for example. However, because the earth's shape is irregular and can't be described by a single function, a function that works (that is, converts the raw fix into the appropriate place on a chart, accounting for the difference between the true geoid [the earth's true shape] and the assumed spheroid used in the chart) for some limited area is used instead. But what works in the US, for example, won't work in Australia and, of course, vice versa.

The issue of great circle sailing is something else and, IIRC, different receivers handle this differently. My main point is it'd be smart, before casting off the mooring lines, to know what one's GPS receiver(s) and plotter(s) do.

[perhorn]

Hi,

I'm not able to locate: "free version of RayTech Navigator from Raymarine. It's sometimes also called RayTech Planner or RayTech RNS, but the free "Planner"!

On Raymarine home page they only show a version RNS 6.2 cost $699...!

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[perhorn]

Hi,

I'm not able to locate: "free version of RayTech Navigator from Raymarine. It's sometimes also called RayTech Planner or RayTech RNS, but the free "Planner"!

On Raymarine home page they only show a version RNS 6.2 cost $699...!

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[chala]

You may have to register but Free RayTech planner was still available at 08/15/2011 from Raymarine website, check free downloads.

[perhorn]

Hi,

Have now installed all - used it - and it works

Great - thank you!

[skipbern]

Anyone have this problem. I was able to transfer waypoints and routes between the E-Series widescreen and my laptop using the multicard reader. Recently though i now get the following message:
raytech rns
unable to import cseries waypoints

nothing gets imported.